About this Project

In this project, I learned about the kinetic molecular theory but we mainly focused on the atom and the different particles such as protons, neutrons and electrons that make it up.  We watched videos and listened to the teacher talk.  I learned some really interesting things in this project even though I had started learning about atoms in prior grades.  One of the new things I learned is that electrons can actually orbit very far from the nucleus.

The driving question in this project was “how can we learn and demonstrate our knowledge of atoms in a creative and fun way?” We were supposed to create a video game to demonstrate our knowledge but instead I got to create a stop motion rendition of my video game because I had difficulties with the scratch program  as a result of its text-heaviness and fine print.

My Creative Process

Before making my stop motion video, I created a screen play with dialogue and action.  When making my stop motion video, I created my characters out of paper and I drew some of them as well.  Another part of my stop motion was creating the backdrops, which I also made out of paper. To take all the photos, I made a make-shift camera rig out of boxes and the long plastic vent panel from my microwave. After every photo I had to move the paper and take another photo.  I took 456 photos for the entire sequence to make a 1 and a half minute animation with a frame rate of 5 shots per second.

My Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this project because it combined molecular science with stop motion, a favourite each in their respective fields.  I felt accomplished because of my deductive problem solving when making a home-made camera rig.  This entire project was quite comfortable because these are all things that I am very familiar with.  This has reignited my passion for stop motion and has helped me practice my screenwriting skills.